Nearly everything about the House Republicans‘ farm bill was a mess, up to and including today’s failure on the chamber floor.<\/b>
\nNearly everything about the House Republicans\u2019 farm bill was a mess.
At GOP leaders\u2019 insistence, for example, it would\u2019ve increased food insecurity for millions of struggling Americans by cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. What\u2019s more, the traditionally bipartisan bill was, this year, put together exclusively by Republicans. Donald Trump\u2019s demand for punitive work requirements was, of course, also included in the package.
Making matters slightly worse, as the Washington Post \u2019s Catherine Rampell explained, the GOP bill would also creates a new layer of government bureaucracy, which \u201ceats up nearly all the \u2018savings\u2019 from kicking people off food stamps,\u201d intended to make it more difficult for qualifying Americans to receive benefits.
And in case all of this weren\u2019t quite messy enough, when the House Republican leadership brought the bill to the floor this morning, it failed. Roll Call reported:
This was a fight with several moving parts, and much of the debate was tied to an unrelated debate over immigration: the right-wing Freedom Caucus\u2019 members said they would withhold support for the farm bill unless GOP leaders agreed to first hold a vote on a far-right immigration plan.
Republican leaders thought they\u2019d made progress on reaching some kind of deal with the Freedom Caucus \u2013 it\u2019s why they brought the bill to the floor, rather than punting \u2013 but in the end, it wasn\u2019t enough.
Complicating matters is that many in the GOP thought the proposal just wasn\u2019t far enough to the right. It was a striking reminder of just how difficult governing can be in this Congress.
If House GOP leaders capitulate to their extremist flank, they end up with bad bills that can\u2019t pass the Senate. If House leaders ignore the Freedom Caucus\u2019 demands, its members block the leadership\u2019s bills.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and his lieutenants could do what John Boehner occasionally did \u2013 go to Democrats, hat in hand \u2013 but (a) they don\u2019t want to, (b) that may not work; and (c) such a move would only exacerbate intra-party tensions.
What\u2019s less clear is what happens now. The House will have to try again to pass a farm bill, and today\u2019s package can be brought back anytime, but if there\u2019s a map for the road ahead, it\u2019s hiding well.
Postscript: Donald Trump yesterday seemed excited about today\u2019s House vote. I guess he didn\u2019t realize what was about to happen.<\/p>\n

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